Russia's media watchdog has written to Google, Twitter and Facebook warning them against violating Russian Internet laws and a spokesman said Thursday (21 May) that they risk being blocked if they do not comply with the rules.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said yesterday (16 February) she would talk to French President François Hollande about building a European communication network to avoid emails and other data passing through the United States. The Commission welcomed the idea, saying that it went in the same direction with its own efforts on data protection.

Education experts and lawmakers gathered this week in Brussels at the invitation of US software giant Microsoft to debate the role that information and communication technologies (ICT) should play in education.

The telecommunications industry is not looking to constrict the open internet at the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) later this year, as has been suggested by some, according to Luigi Gambardella, chairman of the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association (ETNO). Instead, he says, ETNO will seek the freedom to contract commercially when the international telecommunications regulations (ITRs) are debated in Dubai later this year.

“Father of the Internet” Vinton Cerf recently warned that International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) will try to subsume Internet regulation. The senior manager of public policy at the NGO, the Internet Society, Sally Shipman Wentworth tells EURACTIV why the upcoming World Conference on International Telecommunications is important, and what is at stake.

Three committees in the European Parliament have rejected the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) yesterday (31 May), in what some MEPs described as the last nail in the coffin for the controversial agreement.

Germany's political newcomer, the Pirate Party, has become the third political force in the country according to a new survey that gives it 13% of support, ahead of the Greens (11%), the Left (Die Linke, 8%) and the Liberals (5%). EURACTIV Germany contributed to this article.

The Commission has decided to refer the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement to the European Court of Justice, halting for now ratification of ACTA by 22 EU countries. The Commission's moved was welcomed by leading European political parties that fear the international accord would trample rights and freedoms.